Unit information: Post-Apartheid South Africa: Rainbow Nation and Insurgent Citizens in 2020/21

Unit name	Post-Apartheid South Africa: Rainbow Nation and Insurgent Citizens
Unit code	HISTM0083
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Rob Skinner
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	none
Co-requisites	none
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit examines the contemporary history of post-apartheid South Africa. The twenty five years following the country's first democratic elections has been marked by optimistic visions of reconciliation and national reconstruction, along with the realities of continuing poverty and social inequality, and a more recent resurgence of protest and social unrest. Using a wide range of sources including novels and film, as well as the extensive literature on the history, politics and culture of post-apartheid South Africa, the unit will address a series of questions that explore the nature of a society in transition.

Unit aims:

1. To provide students a grounding in long-standing debates that have shaped research in contemporary South Africa, and help them understand how and why these evolved.
2. To give students a broad awareness of the latest interdisciplinary developments in the field of contemporary South(ern) African history.
3. To introduce students to the sources, methods, and concepts that have underpinned new approaches in this field.
4. To prepare students for undertaking independent advanced-level research.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successfully completing the unit, students will be able to:

1. Identify and analyse recent historiographical developments and longer-term trends in the field of contemporary South(ern) African history.
2. Analyse, synthesise and evaluate a range of primary sources using appropriate methodologies.
3. Design and frame a research question within relevant historiographies, theories and methodologies.
4. Compose an extended historical argument rooted in primary source analysis.

Teaching Information

Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous sessions, including group seminar-style discussion and self-directed exercises.

Assessment Information

One 5000-word essay (100%). [ILOs 1-4].

Reading and References

Saul, John S. 2014. South Africa -- the Present as History: From Mrs. 'Ples' to Mandela & Marikana. Woodbridge, Suffolk: James Currey.

Brown, Julian. 2015. South Africa’s Insurgent Citizens: On Dissent and the Possibility of Politics. London: Zed Books.

Gumede, William. 2007. Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC. New York: Zed Books.

Booysen, Susan. 2016. Fees Must Fall: Student Revolt, Decolonisation and Governance in South Africa. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Coombes, Annie E. 2003. History after 'Apartheid :' Visual Culture and Public Memory in a Democratic South Africa. Durham: Duke University Press.